Question about system images

Maybe thats why it only took two dvds , (my hard drive is more than 75% empty) i click on the" make a system image " in the Windows recovery screen, i set the bios to boot from the dvd , it says Windows is loading files and takes me to the Windows installation screen , i click on custom and format and delete both partitions (computer only has two) .

After that , instead of clicking next i hit the X in the top right corner which takes me back to the "repair your computer options screen" and click on system image , i eject the Win 7 iso and put in my system image discs to restore and it works.

I take it you have given up on Macrium?

I found a similar example of what happened to me with Macrium:

I did a complete system image copy with Macrium Reflect Free Edition of my W7 laptop about 18 months ago,

I tend to do a complete fresh install every 18 months or so. This week I wanted to do a complete factory restore of my laptop, But alas somehow my manufacturers recovery partition (Press F 11 and select restore to factory) has become corrupted.

Never mind I said, I got the option now to go down the Macrium Reflect route, I put in the 18 month previously created rescue disc and..........NOTHING.....ERROR MESSAGE DISC WONT LOAD.

The BKU files(BKU = Back Up)are safe and stored and I believe correctly copied on my external HDD, but I have no way of installing this snapshot out of the box 18 month ago clean fresh BKU including all partitions at the time.

Don't worry I am not asking for help, I have contacted my manufacturer, and they are going to post out some Factory Restore W7 Rescue Discs. (Basically what the recovery participation would of done).

The moral of the story....... if the rescue disc does not work when you want to restore a image then you are in big TROUBLE.

Irony of all Irony while I am waiting for the postman/postwoman I decided to experiment with other programs, The in-built W7 Create a system image and create a rescue disc..... WORKS

Paragon Backup & Recovery 2013 Free Create a rescue disc.....WORKS

PLEASE NOTE...In my tests I didn't actually restore anything and by...WORKS...I mean the Rescue Discs I created are recognised when I try to boot from the discs, and on both occasions when I removed my HDD (Imagine If I Am Installing A Copy To A New Drive) I can follow the instructions up to..........which image would you like to restore.

I get none of this with Macrium Reflect........Including after also RECENTLY burning a new rescue disc......with both options offered Linux and Windows PE 3.1

That's My Experience.....

The below is worth noting: My Macrium rescue disk did not work either and i know i followed the instructions correctly because it said burned successfully but still didn't work even when bios was set to boot off the cd drive first.



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by kenjzur on 14. December 2013 - 20:43 (112947)

I HAD the same problems; could not boot on bootable image DVD/CD's and flash drive. Yet, they booted fine on my other older machine. Yet it wouldn't boot on the very machine that created them. The solution - AHCI BIOS option. If this option is on, (which many OS's support) then these cd/dvd, flash bootable images will not work/boot. Check your bios, turn off AHCI (normally associated with SATA/IDE functions) and reboot your restore dvd/cd or flash. It should now work. Also, changing the bios allowed me to boot on flash drive.

ps 1. Don't forget to turn on the AHCI when your done restoring. If your system had it on at time of install, it needs it to run!

ps 2. Don't forget to turn off AHCI when doing off-line image backup as well.

Hope this works for you

Burned successfully means nothing. The test is whether or not the recovery disk will boot the PC. The guy you quote apparently never tested that. I have no idea what he means by BKU files. Macrium creates MRIMG files. Just one for each image.

All imaging programs are useless for restoring the C drive unless you have a way of booting other than the C drive.

The last I heard, you made a series of 7 DVDs with Macrium. That surely is NOT a recovery disk.